Redline Conquest vs Motobecane Super Mirage

Hello! I hope this can be considered the right forum for this question. First a little history since this is my first post. I've been lurking this forum for a few months and just want to say thanks so very much up front to the entire community for the all of the awesome advice in this forum. I decided about 3 months ago to forego replacing a broken down car and instead bought a bicycle to ride to/from work (around 8 miles roundtrip). I'm a rather portly fellow (6' and 280 pounds) and have definitely taken to this whole cycling thing. The Trek 7.1fx i bought has been perfect for my needs. I have since outfitted it with a rack, fenders, headlights, computer, etc to make it my ideal commuting machine.

Now, i'm starting to embrace the n+1 concept everyone seems to speak so highly of and I've also noticed that sometimes you just need a backup ride. I am in the market for a new bike for riding longer distances and over varying terrain. I currently live in Northwest Arkansas, but found a couple bikes in nearby Tulsa that I'm considering for my next purchase (links below). Any thoughts on these machines and which would be the better deal?

I am personally leaning toward the cyclocross bike just because i'm rather hefty and the bike should be designed to take a little abuse. I am thinking of making the short drive tomorrow to test ride both and just wanted to know if the price seemed right for the components and if there is some additional information not provided that I should need to know before purchasing.

Between those specific 2 I'd go with the Conquest because that Motobecane has 27" tires which limits your choices for future component selection. The Conquest has always been a nice bike, right since its introduction. A couple of my teammates ride/rode Conquest frames.

The Conquest does have a tire-size limitation, though. Don't plan on going much larger than a 35mm tire with it, especially if you're fitting fenders on there. It's a straight up CX frame and not designed around monstercross tires (38 - 45mm).

"I feel like my world was classier before I found cyclocross."
- Mandi M.

Thanks for the input. Does anyone have any opinions on the difference in shifters between the bikes? Having never ridden a road bike, I think the location of the bar end shifters on the Conquest would annoy me.

I guess I'm going to let my n00bness show CraigB, but what are you referring to?